Scam kits costing £170 used to con 500 Brits a day by creating fake emails

Crooks can buy scam kits to access the identities of one million Britons, and the tools to con them, for as little as £170. The easily available packages use fake emails to take control of computers, usernames and passwords, a Mirror investigation found. Nearly 500 people a day fall victim to identity fraud, according to Cifas fraud prevention service figures. And we found some of the sophisticated tools in the scam kit can be bought online for as little as £1.58. Cyber-security expert Simon Migliano said: “It’s possible to start a criminal career in online fraud for less than the price of a coffee.” He added: “Fraudsters can buy an impressive set of hacking tools that would permit a cyber-crime spree, from infecting people with malware to hacking wi-fi networks, all with a view to commit identity theft. “This is an alarmingly low barrier of entry to fraud. Some sellers even throw in a free hacking manual.” Criminals set up and sell phishing pages for around £2. These are fake log-in pages for popular online retailers such as Amazon and Tesco. They are spread by spam emails sent to unsuspecting consumers. Crooks can buy genuine email addresses in bulk on the dark web. Fraud cost Britain £6.8billion last year, the UK Fraud Costs Measurement Committee’s annual fraud indicator showed. There were 600 million scam attempts in 2017, with three in four people targeted, Santander UK research found. Two in three received phishing emails. We also found names, addr­esses, bank card… [Read full story]